BEGINS CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN PLANTS 219 



young men in the University and students of botany. Later, Dr. 

 Schultz made a collection of plants between St. Cloud and Fort 

 Garry and submitted them to me and Dr. George Dawson sub- 

 mitted all his collections made on the boundary, while it was being 

 surveyed, These opened up my trip to Lake Superior in 1869, 

 because Mr. Watt was then planning a Botany of Canada and 

 wished to have a better knowledge of the plants around Lake 

 Superior. 



I was now considered the chief botanist in Canada and all 

 collections that were made were sent to me for identification. 

 My trip to Lake Superior, in 1 872, culminated in my going to the 

 Pacific that same year, as previously described, and, in 1875, Dr. 

 Selwyn wished me to be sent with him, and the Government 

 granted his request and Mr. Mackenzie, the premier, appointed 

 me botanist to his expedition. In the meantime, my ambition 

 had increased to such an extent that I began to look forward to 

 being made Botanist to the Dominion and devote all my time to 

 botany. 



My three years as explorer on the prairie and elsewhere gave 

 me an opportunity to place my claims and, on the first of January, 



1881, I was appointed Botanist to the Geological and Natural 

 History Survey of Canada by Sir John A. Macdonald. The ap- 

 pointment carried with it a first class clerk-ship and $1,500 

 a year. 



In 1880, while on the prairie, I decided to take up the study 

 of birds and adopted the plan I had followed when I started teach- 

 ing school; I described the birds as they were shot and, when I 

 found the books, I compared my descriptions with them and so 

 learned the rudiments of ornithology. In the springs of 1881 and 



1882, I collected many species of birds at Belleville and had them 

 skinned by young Mr. Wood, and gave him a York shilling a skin 

 for doing the work. This was how matters stood when I was 

 ordered to report at Ottawa to be a resident there in the autumn 

 of 1882. 



The skins of birds, that I brought, were spread out by me on 

 a table in the Long Room, where the draughting group was, and, 

 after a time, were placed in long drawers that were in the old 



